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A$AP Rocky has certainly become one of the most popular recording artists working today, but he’s making a big step into the world of acting with a dramatic turn in the upcoming Monster. The long-developing adaptation of the Walter Dean Meyers book revolves around a teenager who is wrongfully imprisoned for robbery and felony murder, and Rocky plays one of the film’s antagonists William King.
Monster had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival last week, and Collider got the chance to speak with Rocky, Monster star Kelvin Harrison Jr. and director Anthony Mandler about the movie. But when asked about memorable moments from filming, the trio got very quiet before immediately laughing. Clearly there was a story, and indeed Rocky deferred to Mandler to recount how the rapper actually broke his nose shooting a scene.
“So Rocky plays King, and John David Washington plays Bobo, and they are the antagonists of the film… Because we’re making a small movie and because we have method actors, they did the robbery and all their stunts, which is like a vicious fight scene. So the gentleman who plays the bodega owner who gets murdered is a very big, tough guy. Like a Spanish, uptown, 260-pound [guy]. So [Rocky] and John David come in and we just go, and it’s a full-bore wrestling fight with a gun flying all over the place, and actually on one of the takes Rocky broke his nose.”
Rocky was quick to add that the timing wasn’t exactly great:
“I had like a Vogue shoot like two days later (laughs).”
During the filming of the scene, which used a real gun with the pin taken out, the gun caught Rocky in the face and broke his nose. When it happened, Rocky wanted to keep going, but Mandler says he knew they needed to stop for a bit:
“I really applaud him because the energy in the room was incredible and these guys were like jumping over the counter, and he was like, ‘Let’s go again, I’m good. I’m good.’ And I’m sitting there looking at his nose and it’s clearly broken, and he’s like, ‘I’m ready, I’m ready,’ and I’m like, ‘Yeah no we’re gonna take 20 and let’s call a doctor’ (laughs).”
Rocky says the pain hit him on a bit of a delay:
“A few hours later that night I had a good headache (laughs).”
But as Rocky tells it, he wouldn’t change the approach. He and actor John David Washington felt inspired to really get into the scene:
“We didn’t rehearse, we just shot it. But we wanted to do this though, JD and myself. John David told me, ‘Man you know what I had my uncles come here from Jersey, from New York, I want this to feel as real as possible, I wanted to do my own stunts, just like [it was] a regular day at the bodega.’ John David went through the icee glass, the icee machine. It was crazy.’… It felt like First 48 though. As far as the footage being raw and the rawness.”
As the saying goes, pain is temporary; film is forever. Look for our full interview with A$AP Rocky, Kelvin Harrison Jr., and Anthony Mandler about Monster on Collider soon, and click here to catch up on all of our Sundance coverage.
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Finally, a huge thank you to everyone at Kia and The Future Party for helping to make these interviews happen at the Kia Supper Suite and offering up transportation in the all new Kia Stinger high performance Sportback for our guests. We'd also like to thank Altec Lansing, Kunde Wines, Blue Moon Brewing, and Topo Chico for their support.
